Food, Power, and the Future: Rock Digs In

Rock Harper (: 00:08

They come looking for you, my nigga Don't wait, get a plate Under covers on the take You know the drill when they coming for you It's bigger than rap, black We the opposing figures So throw your hands while the bass Stomp over the rhythms So music, get a plate Know the band was gonna hate Mr. Move Sumthin, coming for you here I represent for the moors And the history's lost over And redirecting lives like Iverson crossover's eyes Wide lost like Michael Angelou, tossed opal or jewel You suck it up like a movie by Bram Stoker

You're tuned in to the Rock

Rock Harper (: 00:59

What's going on party people? Welcome, welcome, welcome to The Rock Harper Show. I am your host and I want to know, I got one question. What's on your plate?

Nah, I'm not talking about just food. I'm not just talking about food. I'm talking about life, work, the big stuff that keeps us up at night, and the small things we don't even notice. Welcome to The Rock Opera Show, where curiosity leads the way, and bold conversations are always on the menu. See what I did there?

I'm your host, Rod Carpenter, and we're diving into the things that matter, from the food we eat to the policies shaping the industry and beyond. Now, I've been around the block a few times, I'm a chef, entrepreneur, TV personality, but what gets me out of bed every morning is the desire to ask questions and find the truth. This isn't just a podcast, it's a journey. And whether you're here for the food, the stories, or...

just to argue with me in your head, I'm glad you're here. Today, we got a packed plate. A lot to talk about, as we are every day. There's a lot going on in the world. We got the FDA food recalls. We're going to talk about what they mean for the restaurant business and a little bit about, you know, what they mean for you as a consumer or if you're in the business. I want to touch on the chaos of the president-elect Donald Trump's

appointments or his try at appointments. And also I want to touch on artificial intelligence.

Rock Harper (: 02:41

AI, the word, the phrase, the acronym everybody is using. I'm gonna tell you why it should terrify you and excite you at the same time. and lastly, we're gonna talk about DC's Initiative 82, I-82 as it's known here locally. I'm in DC in the H Street corridor, Rock Harpers Studios. We're gonna talk about Initiative 82, which was...

the initiative voters voted for a few years ago to phase out the tip minimum wage. I'm gonna ask a question and I want to know what y'all think. Can it be reversed? Touchy subject here, Rock Harbor. Should it be reversed?

Heavy stuff. You ready? Let's jump right in. But before we do, let me tell you, let me lay down some ground rules and just let you know what's going on here. This is a podcast. You are not listening to it live. Not yet. We're going to have some live programming for you, but I'm going to treat it like a live radio show, right? I like live radio. I love listening to it. I respect the heck out of the people that work in it. It ain't easy. As a matter of fact, I won't even say that. It's hard, but I'm going to treat this like a live radio show.

gonna do a whole lot of cutting and editing. You gonna get it, you gonna get my mistakes and all. When I make mistakes, you gonna get them. Now if something crazy happens, like actually you saying this, something crazy happened before you came in, I'm not gonna give you that, right? I'm not gonna give you all of the crazy stuff. But what I am, let me turn my volume up here a little bit. They say I'm low. Who is they? Yes, I got producers in the house. But.

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Rock Harper (: 04:57

Leave a comment be nice be respectful. I will block you And you know, you don't have to agree with me Of course, that would be boring if we all just agreed on everything but let's have a conversation as I said the intro I Really do like questions, you know, I want this show to be about dialogue, right? I'm gonna talk about AI and how you know one of the ways that it's affecting us and these algorithms But we don't talk to one another

You know, so if anything, want, you know, the Rock Harpies Show to be about conversation. I'm outspoken and I'm, you know, I have feelings and thoughts about a lot of things. I'm here to learn. Literally, I treat my life as a classroom, but so there's certain things, there's a lot of things, more that I don't know and I do know, but I, you know, I'm okay with stating where I stand, but also,

We got to talk to one another and be open to being wrong. We got to be open to changing our minds. We got to be open to being, you know, to agreeing, to find some common ground. We just, we're at a very dangerous place and it's not good for us as a species, humanity. I don't mean to speak real big, but it's just, you know, it's just, it's going in a bad direction. So this show, this podcast, this radio show is going to be about having that conversation. So.

What we're do here is I'm gonna jump into this FDA recall thing I'm gonna share my screen with y'all that are watching on YouTube and Wherever else you're watching it and then also I am going to but you're gonna be able to hear it if you're Listening so we're gonna jump right in and then after that we're gonna talk about it a little bit So, let me push play

Rock Harper (: 07:02

keeps growing. A Salmonella outbreak forced Arizona-based sun...

Rock Harper (: 08:34

Okay, that was from Fox 5 in Atlanta and I like that little end tidbit there. Let me stop sharing my screen. I like that little end tidbit. We gotta make sure that, you know, the good news is the onions that were maybe killing people are safe now. So go back to your quarter pounders and your McDoubles and your double cheese.

Anyway, all right, I'm gonna jump on my high horse later. So, you know, that is very interesting. These recalls are very interesting. I'm gonna, again, I want this to be more about a conversation and me telling you what, I'm gonna tell you what I think, but I'd love to know what you all think. I like what that one woman said about, I'm sorry, I didn't catch her name, but if there were more checks, right, at the operation, I was about to say farm, but many of these things, if you ever seen them,

They're not farms. They're factories. They don't resemble what we think is the word the farm. They're feeding operations. And I wish we would use that language or show people what these places really look like. Right? It's like a felony. I believe it's a felony, last I checked, to like record in a chicken farm, for instance, or some of these big feeding operations, CAFOs.

CAFO, which stands for concentrated animal feeding operation or agricultural feeding operation. It's a felony for you to secretly record in there if they find out like these videos were leaked so many years ago. don't know if they still are. So why would it be a felony for you to record our farms in America? Right. Imagine like a line cook at a restaurant

would get fired or face charges if he or she or they like recorded in the restaurant. If they put an Instagram video of what went on in the restaurant kitchen, that would be absurd. But we have these rules for our food system and we just accept them. So I got a little script here that I don't even know if I'm gonna get into. But what I'm saying is, let me tell you a little bit about as a consumer,

Rock Harper (: 10:58

what happens in the restaurant business when we get a recall, like the cucumber thing. didn't, you know, we don't use cucumbers. We use cucumbers. We don't use cucumbers right now. And those were not all cucumbers, but I'll talk about that in a second. It was just a specific cucumber. So if you get a recall, like when we had the scallion scare few years ago, there was romaine lettuce.

Your supplier, if you buy them from reputable suppliers, they will tell you like, yo, you bought this or you've had this recently. It's been recalled and they'll tell you why. So usually you got to isolate the product. The first thing you're supposed to do is isolate the product. So if it's something that's fresh, you put it off in the walk in a refrigerator and you mark it like clearly you tell everybody in the restaurant, I don't care, would not just kitchen staff, you tell everybody do not touch these. Usually they just tell you to throw it away, but sometimes they want to test it or something like that. So

They'll tell you to put it to the side if it's something that shall stable like canned tomatoes or something like that or You know meat boars head right they'll tell you Set it to the side again clearly market tell everybody don't touch it and they'll give you a credit or something. I believe So you don't have to pay for it and that comes from the manufacturer, but we don't have to pay for it now The problem with recalls is there's a lot of problems with recalls one we have speaking about Trump next

We have these government agencies in place, the FDA, USDA. We have these agencies and these sort of checks and balances or these regulations in place, and they're supposed to do something. They're supposed to keep us safe. We have this blind trust, whether we know it or not. We just think like, if a restaurant or a Costco, right, Costco's a giant, gives us some food, it's safe. Well, that's just not the case. And they can blame it on what's coming from

you know, all sorts of the work. We're a global economy, right? We're globally connected. And we want strawberries in January. We want tomatoes in March, right? We want everything all the time year round. And that comes at a cost. That comes with connecting with other people. And we want a lot of it. So that means we consume a lot more food. That means they need to grow a lot more food, right? And not to get too deep in the weeds, but we trust our government. And I think we should.

Rock Harper (: 13:20

And Republicans want to roll back regulations. They want less government involvement. So just think about that, chefs, restaurants, even consumers, think about what that could do with less people looking. And I'll tell you this, Republicans are in my view right now, but this ain't a partisan thing, to be honest with you.

And I'm not a historian on this, but I know it was pretty bad or there's some shaky stuff that went on under Obama, right? And even Bill Clinton, and definitely Joe Biden. So it's, I'm not saying it's like Republicans are to blame for this. I'm saying that it's not great as it is. And Republicans right now want to...

Roll back these protections and I think that we have to fight against that. So i'm really curious to see what you all think we're go to a commercial break. Yes. We do have commercials here We do have ads here and we're gonna come back and we're gonna talk about this peter hegseth guy, right, this Trump appointment and what that has to do with the restaurant industry he's I think defense secretary. I should know that if i'm bringing this story up

But we're going to talk about it. he's under fire for some essay stuff, maybe, possibly, allegedly, and also some alleged or possible alcoholism or substance abuse. And we would definitely want to talk about this thing. But also, I want to talk about something else that I don't want anybody else talking about, especially us in the restaurant industry. But we're going to play this commercial. And we're going to come right back. Let me turn this volume up on this commercial.

And right after the break, we're going to come back and get into it. Expert janitorial services and carpet steam washing to industrial sanitation with HACCP and safe quality food practices. They even do turn clean services for apartment complexes. They do it all with precision and care. For almost five years, I've trusted Ms. Lynn and her team with my home and businesses. And let me tell you, there's nobody better.

Rock Harper (: 15:44

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Rock Harper (: 17:28

All right, welcome, welcome, welcome back. Welcome back. Make sure you definitely go check out Ms. Lynn if you're in the DMV area. When I tell you this woman and her team, when I tell you they clean things, I ain't know it's dirty. And they're just super efficient. think it bothers, like dirt bothers her. And I'm grateful. So let's talk about...

This Peter Heg says let's let's do this. Let's go to another clip. What you're going to see here is Jake Tapper. I didn't even know he was still on CNN. They call it CNN. They call the CNN Fox like Fox News like. But he is interviewing this GOP.

Senator Eric Schmidt. Senator Schmidt. Senator Eric Schmidt joins CNN to discuss Trump's cabinet nominees. So let me set this up. know, Peter Heksef is, you know, Trump's appointee, and he's trying to get confirmed. So he's got a lot, he's got to, you know, go around and kiss rings and...

Let people know that he's the guy but apparently he has some accusations. Like I said before the break of you know, not treating women so well and also, I think the thing that that's really out there is his abuse of Or his problem with alcohol. So let's take a look at the video We will come back to it and it's a little long I want to show you and then you're gonna see within the video. They're gonna reference something about Mike Megan Kelly

Hegseth went on with Megyn Kelly. So you're gonna see sort of two shows in one.

Rock Harper (: 20:53

Okay, okay, enough of that. Listen, so much there, it's so much there.

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Trump's latest appointments should have the restaurant world buzzing. I don't think they are, but they should. know, only a little bit. If you're an insider, there's a lot of talk. I don't know if, and restaurant people are busy, so I get why you're not talking about it, but there's labor laws. You know, immigration policies, we're gonna talk about minimum wage here in DC. These moves could shake up our industry to its core.

And then we got this guy, Pete Hexeth. And you're like, what does he have to do with, that's the Pentagon. Like, what does he have to do with the restaurant business? You know, and a couple of things. It bothers me, he bothers me, but he, Omi said, I forget the other senator said that he told him if he got the job, I don't know if y'all caught that, if he got the job,

He would quit, he wouldn't drink.

Rock Harper (: 22:35

Now I was listening to Urban View Mornings with Lamont King and Dr. Greg Carr. And that's where I first heard about this. So I had to go look this up. And he didn't say it publicly because I couldn't find it. But it was buried within an interview of, you know, Jake Tapper. Someone told, I don't know if you heard that horn, but that ain't getting cut out. Jake Tapper.

said he got word that if you know, Pete Peter Hexeth said if he got the job, he wouldn't drink. In his interview with Megyn Kelly, he said, no one's ever told me that I've had a drinking problem. I've never been checked. Nobody told me I had to go get help. Those, you know, as somebody that one personally has struggled with substances over my life and has seen it personally and also in an industry where it's

quite rampant, those are not like answers to someone that wants to take accountability for their problem or for their challenge or for the perception that they have a problem, right? I'm just gonna say you can drink, right? I think it's legal, it's fun. doesn't look, he doesn't appear to be, I mean, we don't know what alcoholics look like yet, you know.

You can drink, but this is an issue. And this is an issue we've seen with Republican appointees over the, know, few of them on the Supreme Court that have been accused of some pretty terrible things. And now they're making decisions that can really affect our lives. you know, that's just a crazy thing that people, that we're in this space where he probably won't get confirmed, but he's still gonna be considered. Now, I don't say I don't care, but

I'm not really on that. What I'm on is what I'm talking about is his addiction problem, right? And the example here and the thing that I wanted to talk about that nobody's talking about is like, if you don't address it in our industry, it can kill you. It's life and death for folks in our industry. And I really want to, you'll see with this show that we're going to talk about it. I'm going to talk about my own struggles with my mental health, what I've seen in and around the industry.

Rock Harper (: 25:01

as a man, a black man, you know, there are certain things that we just don't talk about, don't address. We try to muscle through. And you could do, you know, I'm not saying that, you know, you need to go and put all your business on Front Street. But for somebody like this Hegseth guy, you know, you're in a public position in a very important position at the Pentagon. Yeah, your business does that business doesn't need to be on Front Street because you can't be an alcoholic.

And and have problem with essaying people if you're you know in that position, I So I just think that my whole message in bringing this up is I see the behavior I don't know if the guy has a drinking problem or not, but it sounds like he's running from something He sounds like he's not taking accountability because if he did I don't think that you know, I don't know anything about him I've heard I've read a few things about him. He's not

He's a Fox News guy or something like that. And he's got some radical ideas that are kind of crazy. But the drinking thing, I feel like most Americans would forgive you. Like, like we're in such a place where you can't even say, yeah, in the past, you know, maybe I've had too much to drink. And I guess maybe for a role in the Pentagon, if you say that, it's kind of going to be maybe the nail in your coffin. But he just sounds like an addict. He sounds like an addict that

is not addressing it, is not honest with himself. And, you know, I just hope that, you know, he might get the job. The fact that he even got this far is incredible. But I hope that, you know, my folks in the restaurant, especially men, take this as an example. take this as an example. I sound like I've been drinking. That you gotta hit your stuff head on with the people that you love and those around you, you know?

Yeah, let's go to the break and let's take another break. Let's see if these commercials are working. So I don't have to hit you with the accidents, the double up, but we're going to come back and talk about AI. We're going to talk about, I read this book recently. opened this book as a friend of mine recommended this book called Nexus. This guy, Yuval Noah Harari, that is like a intellectual superstar that I just heard of him within the past, I want to say six months.

Rock Harper (: 27:21

No, September is the first time I heard about him. So less than that and this book Nexus and about Information networks and AI so we're gonna talk about that and I told you I think you should be scared of some of this stuff but also excited in the same time, but let's take a commercial and Come on back and get into this AI thing. And again, the number is five seven one

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Rock Harper (: 28:31

Rock Harper show where curious.

Rock Harper (: 28:42

All right, y'all welcome back. Welcome back. Right before the break, I talked about Yuval Noah Harari. And we're going to jump into this clip where he's sitting down with I really like this podcast to or show. don't know if he can say I think it's a podcast called The Diary of a CEO. He's got eight million subscribers. So I don't want to likes it. But this guy who is I even know the dude's name, I should know his name.

I'm sorry, I'll Google his name while it's playing. But he is such a good interviewer. That's neither here nor there, but he's sitting down under the diarrhea of CEO podcasts. And I'm going to play this clip where it is talking about can we trust what we see on social media and the news.

Rock Harper (: 33:16

All right, that was really good. I know that was kind of long but It's a good interview, you know, I really enjoy his book. I've heard his other books are great Big books, but they're easy. He has complicated thought and he goes pretty deep in history And but he makes it simple at least it's simple to me There's so much there and you know again, I don't want to call go go too hard

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Ask a question, just leave it on voicemail. Try not to make it over a minute, y'all. You know, don't fill my voicemail up. Like, I don't even know you like that. And if I do know you, you know, I don't do that with my regular phone. So don't, be respectful to the people that's going to call in, all right? And don't call up saying that crazy because I block you. But no, seriously, I appreciate artificial intelligence, right? I like it.

I will say this, there's so much I do not know about it. But let's talk about the good stuff. Well, let me point out some great stuff, right? So one, we are calling every damn thing AI. Like if it's automatic, we call it, that's AI. And everything ain't AI. Like some of the stuff is just computers and machines and robots, but it's not necessarily artificial or what Yuval Noah Harari calls it in his book.

is alien intelligence, not like from another world, but alien, like, we don't know what it is. It's really new. But everything ain't AI, right? And I'm not going to define it right here, but I think the most famous AI sort of tool right now is ChatGPT. And ChatGPT is really cool, right? There's a dark side of AI, too. I keep going that way, but let me talk about the good stuff.

Rock Harper (: 35:37

So robots in the kitchen is one of the things that I have like here. It's kind of crazy I've seen it a couple of places but like self-delivering machines, right? So it's not just the robots you can kind of program of robot But how was the machine learning? How was it responsive to its environment? How does it get better? How does it like have common? How does it produce thought? You know these things that's where AI comes in right and he goes into that into the book Like how is it creating thought? How was it creating ideas?

and like optimizing the world or its world or its work, right? And that stuff is exciting if you tell this, you know, let's just say it's a food runner robot to, you know, be more efficient and it takes less trips or I have no idea. I'm just making this up all the time. hear it's a pretty exciting stuff, right? Predictive analytics running the inventory. I think those are some of the jobs. I was listening to somebody the other day.

And they called in and they asked about, forget what show, but they called in, this woman that called in, and no, it was with the same guy, and it was at Politics and Pros, and somebody from the audience asked about the poor people that were gonna lose their jobs as a result of AI. And his answer was interesting. He was saying, you know, people are gonna lose jobs, also adapt and get new jobs, will emerge. But also, it's not just poor people. know, they're pretty, there's some higher jobs, some higher...

Education or you know salary jobs that could be up, you know for grabs too right when we think about what AI is learning to do to diagnose illnesses and look at sort of x-rays and and and Just you know in the medical field. Let me just say that we look at law right? it's not a lawyer yet, but I I'm not I'll be honest. I've submitted a contract to

chat gbt and I asked for its feedback on certain clauses and it didn't cost me you know, I got lawyers that are good and they six hundred dollars an hour and you know, 10 minute conversation is I'm sorry a one minute conversation is going to be you're get 15 minutes off of that. Anyway, it don't matter like you can't just you know, and I you know, I don't know what I paid for chat gbt, but it wasn't as much as a lawyer

Rock Harper (: 38:02

Is it solid? You know, it's still learning and that's the thing. It's learning really fast but I think some of some legal things legal jobs are up for will will shift right? not a not a lawyer and i'm not saying lawyers is going to go away I'd like for legal stuff to be less expensive Accounting is another thing, right? investing right with the stocks and all that jazz. So I think there's a lot

And as we talk about restaurants and predictive, you know, we think about slow periods and high periods, but how can you optimize really your operation? And there's so many things and social media, right? Social media is pretty dope. You could just create content. It could create content in five seconds. And we pay social media managers, human beings, you know, how are the machines learning to do what they do, which is important as well.

That we're training them and that that that's that's interesting, right? But I think that it's it's exciting. But also we need to be mindful We're treating it kind of like because we're in the infancy, you know We treating it like Google and we're gonna be able to control it But this is a very different technology other than the printing press or websites or anything like that This is the first technology that can actually create thought and make decisions right websites couldn't do that at the dot-com boom and

And all this other stuff was stuff that we as humans could control. this has, and I'm not even talking about like the fearful thing is like iRobot, everything like, they're gonna take us over. And they could, you know, I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility. But I think that there are some other things that, you know, if you just look into it, and I ain't gonna go into it too deep here. But if you look into it, there's some other dangerous possibilities. So it is, you know, again,

It is up to the powers that be to really put some guardrails around these things before it gets out of control. Do I think that'll happen? Maybe. There's some people that are working really hard on it, but also maybe not. You got the Elon Musk of the world. You know, you got the Jeff Bezos of the world. Everybody's racing to become like the trillionaire, the first trillionaire. And AI is going to help. So in America, in the Western world, it's all about how much money you can make.

Rock Harper (: 40:24

And no matter how many people or things you can destroy, like AI takes a lot of energy and resources from the earth, right? There's these data centers that were taken over, different neighborhoods and communities. Those things cost resources. Like AI is just not like some little cube on your desk. So interesting stuff. And definitely want to hear what you all think. 571.

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income credit and then after that we go close the show out after this commercial break. And enjoy the best food and drinks on the historic Beach Street corridor. you're stopping by for a casual night out or hosting a private event, Hill Prince is the perfect spot to unwind and connect. With a warm and welcoming vibe, an unforgettable menu and drinks to match, it's easy to see why Hill Prince is a neighborhood favorite. Check us out at hillprince.com.

and come see what makes us the heart of H Street. Hill Prince is more than a bar. It's where the community gathers to share stories, celebrate culture, and enjoy the best food and drinks on the historic H Street corridor. Whether you're stopping by for a casual night out or hosting a private event, Hill Prince is the perfect spot to unwind and connect. With a warm and welcoming vibe, an unforgettable menu, and drinks to match, it's easy to see why Hill Prince is a neighborhood favorite.

Check us out at hillprince.com and come see what makes us the heart of H Street. All right, welcome back, welcome back. Okay, no music, we just going right into it. DMV, this is for you. I say DMV, I know this is DC, but Maryland is trying and we'll see what happens in Virginia. Virginia's a little tougher, it's a little bigger, a little more conservative on this side, I believe. Initiative 82, the tipping wage law that's got everyone talking. Some folks love it.

Rock Harper (: 42:48

Some folks hate it, but here's the question. Here's the question I got for you. Can it be reversed, repealed?

reformed. And should it be?

Restaurants are feeling a squeeze. Some workers are feeling powered. Some workers are feeling like, eh, this wasn't a good thing. Customers are happy. Customers are angry. Customers are like, whatever. And a lot of people are confused. You got the attorney general, who I'm a reserve comment on him for now.

I like the fact that he bought the lawsuit against Amazon over in some neighborhoods in DC the other day, so I'm let him breathe on this. But where do you stand? Change is hard, know? Change is hard, but talking about it is harder. So let's keep the conversation going.

You know, I own two restaurants, one in DC and one in Virginia. So.

Rock Harper (: 44:07

I'm gonna say this about it. I think that I've never been a fan of...

Rock Harper (: 44:17

I shouldn't say never. I think that blanket fixes are often ill-advised.

cause.

Rock Harper (: 44:33

They... Let me stick to the restaurants.

Rock Harper (: 44:40

It's a challenge because it was a blanket solution for an industry that is super diverse. And it hurts consumers, it hurts workers, it hurts restaurant owners. Some people can't adapt and some people can't adapt. It's not about keeping more money, it's not about making more money, it's about following the law and being profitable within that.

And it's also about once we follow the law, will customers pay?

the new price of the burger or the steak or the veggie burger. So I think that when it was passed, the way the language was written, the money that was pumped into the campaign from this outside money to sort of cause chaos within DC, I think that it was easy to pass it because it was just a check. Do you want people to make more money? Who wouldn't check? Yes.

Right, wasn't, but it was more complicated than that. I'm not making a stance here either way. What I am saying is that I think we should ask the question. I know that the DC City Council said that they will not. I know they've done it before, rarely, sparingly. But I think the question should be asked if we're truly, from the mayor on down to the City Council, if we're truly about small businesses. We really want to help

Small business owners, restaurants, keep our restaurant community nice and healthy. Because it's hurting right now in D.C. Truly want to do it. Does it deserve to be looked at?

Rock Harper (: 46:28

Right? I know that people would be worried about the political backlash. Politicians, God bless them, but they want to stay in office and they want to keep in office. I don't know who's up for election next year in DC, if anybody. But I think if you're really here to serve the people, residents and businesses, and the people are saying that it hurts, then, you know, my...

My vote would be to address it. And as somebody that is in community with more restaurant owners and staff and consumers than the average bear, because I'm in the industry, I can tell you that people are confused and would like a better solution.

Or open to exploring a better solution. Let me say that And I can't speak for everybody. That's why I got the show five seven one five three four ninety one sixty nine. I think it I Think it is is worth talking about so shoot me a message. That's it. I don't want to go Over an hour on this thing. We have 47 minutes. I think 45 or something like that So that's it. That's it y'all

It's been great. I appreciate it. I'm really looking forward to speaking with you all live, hearing your voices, because I can talk. Anybody that knows me knows I can talk, but it gets kind of boring, right? You're just talking. A lot of people, you know, they should probably put some regulation around podcasts. Too many people got microphones. Sure need to be. Sure is the microphone company of Rode. Y'all done too damn much with giving these microphones and booms and Rode. I got all this stuff. It's too much equipment out there, because some of you mother suckers

I'm trying not to cuss too. Do I got a cuss button here? I think I do. Do I got a, let me see, cause I need to, you know, I'm a chef and know, chefs like to curse. Let's see, where we at? Where we at? We got a sensor. We got a sensor in there. Come on. We got a sensor. Come on, the sensor at? a**. Hey, there it is. Some of you need to let your mother****. Nah, I'm just playing. I'm just playing mama.

Rock Harper (: 48:51

I'm sick of this ****. That's really cool. Try not to cuss. So this could remain kid friendly and you can play it around your church folk too. But yeah, you know, I can talk, but I'd rather, we need to be in conversation, y'all. And this is very serious, you know. Even when speaking about the AI, and I'm wrapping up here, AI is problematic because

It is controlling the algorithms, are doing things that you don't think, you think you're smart. I saw somebody on a post today, was an earn your leisure post, and they say, nah bro, we know what a bot is. Brother, sister, person, you do not, I promise you, these machines and these bots are not the bots of five years ago. They're not the bots that you think they are. They're not the ones that Cindy Triple H

I hide, like they're not those bots anymore. They can think, man. And the more we argue with people in the comments, the more that they understand how we speak, what our fears are, what excites us, what are we afraid of, what makes us angry. And the fix to that, and I'll tell you this, you're going to hear me say this a lot, say it earlier, is the in-person economy.

-: 9169

is face to face. These videos, don't even know it was me.

Rock Harper (: 50:52

It's me, but in a few years or maybe a few months, I got, there's some software I've seen that like can just emulate you. And I don't, you know, so anyway, I'm just saying we got to talk to each other, y'all. So I wind it down from there. I got a little script here, so let me go and read it. That is a wrap of episode one of The Rock Opera Show. We covered a lot today from FDA recalls to AI tipping laws to Trump appointments.

But here's thing, these aren't just stories. They're our lives. They're the issues shaping our industry, our communities, and our future. Next time, we'll talk about the rise of ghost kitchens, maybe. Are they dining? Are they the future of dining? Are they the death of your mom and pop? You don't want to miss it. Who knows? Until then, subscribe, share, leave a review. Hit me up.

Scratch that I don't even know why I wrote that I'm not talking about ghost kitchen as the next episode This is a live show, so I'm not cutting that out next time. We're gonna talk about something We're gonna talk about what y'all leave on the message. I want to hear what do you all want to talk about? What's on your mind as it relates to this industry? Cooking I ain't talking about no food. Whatever you can tell me I don't mean I'm talking about it, but please let me know because this is this is a conversation So, please subscribe share leave a review hit me up with your thoughts and ideas This is the rock harper show where curiosity leads the way

and bold conversations are always on the menu. Stay curious, stay bold. I'll catch you next time, and I'm gonna leave you with some music. All the music that you've heard today is by an incredible artist, Priest The Nomad, and I'm gonna leave you with a song that he actually made. He's a friend of mine, but he's super talented. I'm blessed to be his friend. He made four...

My restaurant or it was inspired by my restaurant and about, you know, Queen Mother's and definitely go check him out on all of your platforms as priest to no man. This is called My Way Home and we'll always close the show with this because I always feel like no matter what we can find our way back home. So I will see you all. Stay curious, stay bold. I'll holler at you soon. Peace.

Rock Harper (: 53:15

Again, I don't know what that was. I clicked the wrong button. So live show, you're going to get this thing again.

Rock Harper (: 53:28

I'm not cutting that out. I can't find it.

I'm picking dude up from the fed gates. He like damn Pete you ate past grown. We both struggling trying to pay back loans. Had a tear in his eye. said I was living a lie. Tell mom sorry trying to find my way back home. You know fried chicken and rice with the butter. She my queen so I call her my queen mother. When everyone else leave me broken alone. She said son find your way back home. Find your way